My co-founder and I are both highly entrepreneurial, and we are both trying to act as the Visionary for the company. This double-headed Visionary setup is creating massive confusion for our Integrator and leadership team because we constantly issue conflicting strategic directives. How do we clean up this structure?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

A double-headed Visionary setup is an operational disaster. In an entrepreneurial business, having two people acting as the Visionary creates massive friction, split loyalties, and organizational paralysis. Your Integrator cannot execute effectively when they are constantly receiving conflicting strategic directives from two equal owners.

To clean up this structure, you and your co-founder must have a hard, honest conversation about your true conative strengths. Take the Kolbe A Profile to understand how each of you naturally takes action. While you may both be highly entrepreneurial, you likely have different areas of genius.

Under the EOS framework, there can only be one Visionary seat on the Accountability Chart. You must decide who fits that seat best based on who has the strongest connection to the market, the long-term vision, and big-picture relationships. The other co-founder must step out of the Visionary seat.

This does not mean the other co-founder has no role. They can take another high-impact seat on the Accountability Chart, such as Head of Product Development, key account sales, or even Chairman of the Board, provided they GWC that seat and report to the Integrator for day-to-day operations.

Once the seats are defined, you must respect the structure. If you are the designated Visionary, all operational directives must go through the Integrator. If your co-founder has taken a non-Visionary seat, they must respect the Integrator's authority. This clean separation of roles will eliminate the confusion and allow your leadership team to execute with absolute clarity.